amiga-gloom/theone

Yo Andy,

Here are some answers to your questions...

They're a bit disjointed, but I'm sure your editing skills (and spellchecker)
can improve them no end!

As for the recent disk, there are some picture mock-ups on the program
disk called mock1.iff, mock2.iff etc. There's a shot of the map editor, some
sprites, and various still shots scanned in from Kurt and Hans' artwork. You'll
need DPaint 4 on an AGA machine to see the stills.

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------;

Hi Mark,

1: Gloom. That sounds a bit like Doom, doesn't it?

Mark:
The name sort of started out as a joke, just something to call
the project while we were working on it. By the time we had to settle on
a 'real' name, we threw around some pretty weird ones (Gorefest '95,
Bloodbath etc.) but wound up sticking with Gloom, probably because we were
all used to it.

Hans & Kurt:
We also thought that people would associate the name Gloom with Doom, thus
tipping our hats in Dooms direction for the inspiration it gave us.


2: Is it meant to be as close a version as possible?

Mark:
When we started on the game, there were already quite a few demos
around by people trying to 'do Doom'. The trouble was, none of them seemed
to involve shooting anything which, when it comes down to it, is why people
play Doom (it is a game, remember folks!). So we decided to do a version
which placed the emphasis on the actual game, not the scenery. In fact, the
monster drawing code was the first bit done...if that'd proved too slow, we
probably would have abandoned the whole thing.

So, I guess Gloom's trying to be a close version in that it involves wiping
out shit-loads of monsters, but not in terms of walking around complex scenery.

We've also tried to give it a whole different look from Doom. Kurt and Hans
have consciously tried to avoid the Doom look which all the clones
seem intent on capturing. Also, the game is divided up into distinct graphic
styles, so instead of the 'mix-and-match' approach to graphics you see in doom
clones (and even Doom itself), the graphics in Gloom actually go through
abrupt changes, which alters the mood of the game entirely.

Kurt:
At the start of the project it was very doom orientated because all we had
to go on was Dooms look and feel.
But as we went along we wanted to break away from Dooms grey monoteny, so at that
point I think unconsciously while we were forming the game we were bringing in
our originality with the only similarity being the first person perspective.


3: Have you seen any other Doom 'clones' on the Amiga?

Mark:
Heaps of them! But only one, called 'Fears' I think, where you can
actually shoot things. It's weird, like Amiga programmers think Doom is all
about walking around buildings, twiddling your thumbs, going 'ahhh, that's a
nice wall'.

Hans & Kurt:
Also the other clones graphic sprites didn't really stand out from the background
graphics. I think this is due to the fact that they used colours too dull and
similar to the background colours. I think playability wise our graphics have allowed
quicker reaction time because you can see the enemy sprites at a longer distance mainly
because our sprites illuminate well from the background.


4: How long have you been working on it?

I'd been playing around with the game engine for a couple of months
before coming up with the one used now. Since then, it's been about 3 months
of solid work, and I guess there's another month or so to go.


5: When you started Gloom, did you have any idea how it would turn out?

Mark:
No way! From the beginning we wanted it to be an action game, but there was
always this nagging thought that it'd end up a shoot-one-monster-at-a-time kind
of thing. But I rememeber sitting down with Kurt one day, when everything was
more or less up and running and sticking 20 odd monsters in a room...WOW!
You'd walk in there, start firing, and the next thing you knew there were arms
and legs and torsos and intestines and stuff flying EVERYWHERE!
So, the end result has pretty much exceeded my expectations. And it's got
nice walls.


6: Talk about some of the problems you came across when writing it.

Mark:
Well, the texture mapping was a bit of a headache. I tried 3 completely
different approaches before coming up with the one used now. The technique
we use is actually pretty slow for drawing an 'empty' scene, but it allows you
to draw lots of monsters with very little slowdown.

The depth sorting stuff also proved challenging(!). This involves deciding
which walls are in front and which are behind, which sounds pretty simple
(well it did to me), but is actually a major bastard.

Finally, there were problems with mathematical accuracy. Like, you'd try to
draw a wall with straight horizontal lines on it, stick it in the game, and
the lines would come out all zig-zaggy. I cleaned this up to a large extent,
but it's still noticable in some places. That blows me away about Doom...the
whole thing is done so bloody cleanly. There's no pixels out of place or
anything!

Hans:
During the early stage of development on the demo,
something was happening on the last level every time I was going through a
teleport. A bug had surfaced at this point of the game - I noticed that the speed
of the game was slowing down every time I entered the teleport to the point
that it was ridiculously slow. Me and Mark where quite baffled by the problem,
until I teleported to a room and was ambushed by an almost infinite number
of enemy sprites! The bug had caused more enemies to be added each time you
went through the teleport...you'd get killed, go through again, get killed
again and so on...But I think it's fixed now...


7: The demo we have is quite big. How big will the final game be?

Mark:
I'm not sure. I'm knocking out mazes at the rate of about 2 a day right now,
so it depends on when I get bored and the mazes start looking the same. That's
probably a good time to stop. But the way things are going at the moment, I'd
say there should be about 20+ mazes in there.

I'm trying to make the mazes small, but interesting. I'm not really a big fan
of huge, confusing mazes. Instead, I'm trying to give each maze a bit of
'twist'...so hopefully they'll end up as small, confusing mazes.

There's also the problem of my tendancy to add stuff to the game at random
intervals. I've just spent the last couple of days writing a routine to rotate
and move walls, which adds a whole new aspect to the game - you can get
squashed! So, we can have huge gear wheels and things spinning around for
you to run through - but first I gotta draw the maps.

8: Talking speed for a while: does the frame rate increase depending on what processor you have?
   How about screen size/resolution

Gloom is done in the infamous 'copper chunky' mode, and offers 2 pixel sizes -
2 X 2 and 3 X 3. 2 X 2 mode allows for a window as tall as the screen, but only
about half the width. 3 X 3 mode lets you have a full screen display.

I've heard a lot of debate about doing stuff this way, but for me the decision
came down to how to do it as fast as possible on a standard A1200. A lot of it
comes down to personal taste...what I consider to be too slow, someone else
might think is just fine. Still, you have to go with your instincts...

A faster processor definitely makes the game smoother, but doesn't offer
any different display modes.


9: The two-player mode is a good innovation - but will there be a null modem
   link-up too? That really works with Doom.

YES! YES! YES!


10: If the main code is assembler, is Blitz used at all?

The map editor and heaps of little utility programs were done in Blitz, but
there's no actual Blitz code in the game itself.


11: The other people in Black Magic - have they done anything before? 

Kurt, Hans, Kev and I first met while working on a game in Australia. The
whole episode was a bit of a drama...we'd gone over to work for this rich guy
who wanted to get into the games publishing biz, but things turned pretty ugly
at the end. We actually finished the game, but nothing ever came of it...

Kurt and Hans have also contributed graphics to some of Acid software's stuff -
Guardian and SkidMarks 2, but apart from the OZ one, this has been their first
complete game.

Kev did the music and graphics on a game called 'Lunar-C' which was on the
CD32 version of Overkill...but that was before we met him.


12: Do you anticipate any trouble from id Software?

Nahhh...I'm sure they're too busy on the 3DOSXstationTigercatreality conversion
of Doom to be reading THE ONE.


13: Er, and the final question is: do you have anything more to say?

Mark:
I'd like to say a big, cuddly 'thanks' to the authors of the original Doom,
for coming up with such an original, awesomely programmed game, which has also
returned shoot-em-ups to their deserved place under the spot-light!

Hans and Kurt:
I think that this project gave us a lot of fun and excitement. Basicly because
it was entirely something new both from the graphic and writing perspective.
We can't wait for its release onto the Amiga market, we have contemplated that
the market will respond positively to it, providing other Doom clones don't
beat us. Even if there is another clone out there i think we will still do quite
well mainly because The Amiga market is really hungry for this style of game and
we here at black magic have full confidence in its pure quality.

Butler bro's:
It will blow the shit out of anything in its path!